One of the keys to effectiveness is to know yourself and show yourself the Goldilocks amount. How do you avoid TMI (Too Much Information)? And, at the other end of the spectrum, how do you keep from being too reserved to share much of anything with other people?

If you know yourself well enough, you can share relevant information to improve communication and connect with others. And the more expert communicators you have on your team, the more potential you have to build trust in a professional way.

One tool to help you on this journey is the Johari Window. Created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, the Johari Window helps people understand what they show and what they hide from the world; what they don't see and what they don't even know about themselves.

Neal first learned about the Johari Window in one of his leadership training sessions, and it piqued his interest as a facilitation tool. We are excited to have Neal share his insights about how to use the Johari window to help teams connect on a deeper level without oversharing. And for those interested, we'll have an opportunity for hands-on exercises.

BioNeal Peterson is a business consultant who helps businesses utilize the full capacity of their systems and processes. His goal is to enable businesses and people to do more with less, more efficiently and effectively. As a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Lean Black Belt Professional (LBBP), and self taught agile coach, he collaborates across the functional departments of an organization to enable continuous measurable improvement of end to end value chain processes. He has done this for companies in the healthcare, financial services, retail, government, software, semi-conductor, transportation, shipping, and manufacturing industries. He seeks to share the agile mindset with others in the community via conversations and facilitated sessions that enable learning in a collaborative environment.

Some Agile methodologies prescribe roles within a team. Then why can it be so hard some times to get a team aligned and firing on all cylinders throughout the course of all sprints? This presentation will call out some areas to be aware of, that we can sometimes overlook, or be completely blind to when we start a project that is agile, waterfall, or hybrid. We will then look at avenues to address these oversights to empower you and your team to better see and address how you can improve your team’s effectiveness in building deliverables, your organization, and individual team members.

Bio

Kip Davis is the Principal at Deal With The Gap LLC. He has 25+ years professional experience in and across multiple functions from software & hardware support to Director of Marketing to PMO Manager, to Product Manager, and CRM Administrator, among others. He has helped set up and manage Programs, PMOs and Portfolios. He’s utilized agile, hybrid, and waterfall methodologies as manager, consultant, contractor, and employee. He is a life-long learner and has an MBA degree, with applicable certifications of Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Prosci Change Practitioner, Illumeo Organization Development Certification, and Certified Business Architect (CBA). Through extensive research and experience he has considered and conceptually combined and bridged several relevant industry models and methodologies and established an alignment framework which he uses to help individuals and organizations understand where they are in relation to their desired outcomes, and what options they can take or create to better accomplish their goals.

While our tech-based companies are struggling to find the talent needed to grow a new creative economy, our schools are still stuck in a 100-year-old model that was designed to produce workers for an industrial age. Students desperately want to be a part of the future but many are struggling to understand why they are even showing up to school each day. Here in Oregon, we have the second worst graduation rate in the entire country. Some would joke that we are the Mississippi of the West, except that Mississippi now has a higher graduation rate.

Four years ago Innovate Oregon launched The Dayton Experiment, in Dayton Oregon, a rural community in Yamhill County where two-thirds of the students live in poverty and a third of the students are Hispanic.

This experiment explored what might happen if you took the agile mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets from our agile community and partnered with a school district to re-imagine education. Might it be possible for an entire school district to transform from a traditional teaching institution into a dynamic learning organization, one that unleashes the creative genius of their students?

Today, Dayton has a 97% graduation rate and recently sent a student design team to be showcased at MIT. It is inspiring agile cultural transformations in districts throughout the entire state.

Thompson will be sharing the story of this journey and lessons that have been learned when bringing agile to a complex ecosystem. These lessons have direct implications for companies seeking to scale agile within their organizations.

Bio

Thompson Morrison is the Founder and Chief Evangelist for Innovate Oregon, originally a strategic initiative of the TAO Foundation. For 15 years he ran a software company whose development teams embraced agile practices. He was on the Board of the TAO and chaired their strategy committee that led the transformation of the organization from its earlier manifestation as the SAO. He led the team from the TAO and PDC that developed a community-based economic development strategy for the software industry. He was a founding board member of the STEM Investment Council and co-authored Oregon's STEM Investment Plan. He is also the co-founder of both TaborSpace and the Rosewood Initiative.

So you’re learning Agile! You get excited because you discover something and bring it to work and - POOF - someone discards your ideas like they’re useless! Or someone comes to you and wants to “coach” you about what you “should” be doing in agile/scrum/Kanban teams. How do you share your most exciting thoughts and receive the thoughts of others?

Both Kat and Kathey (Kat’s inner critic) will be presenting. Join Kat/Kathey on her journey from curious newby, to “fake expert” to “Newby Thought Leader” and back again…and again. Kathey will discuss self-doubt, blame, living behind the walls of our assumptions. Using those defense mechanisms, Kat will share how she has been able to rewrite some bad internal dialogs to develop channels that have allowed her to passionately share often valuable insight with those around her, and to be recognized for doing so. She will also share her failures, and how she was able to apply them differently in subsequent exchanges. (50 min with optional facilitated networking to follow)

Key Results:

> Recognize what Agile Bullying is: when you see it and when you do it.> Learn some methods to deliver value or extract it from others without bullying.> Gather some tools that can help you self-brand and develop your own inner expert> Activities that can help you develop as a thought leader in your own skill expertise> Hands-on coaching and networking exchange activity within small groups: Practice the skills we discuss and network with your agile community.> Laughter

“Kathey Daugherty” is Kat’s inner critic who often wonders if she is really as good as those she views as more accomplished, more intelligent, smarter or better than she is at agile, speaking, and life in general.

Notice: This meeting may be recorded. Also, we will not hold the event during icy or snowy conditions. Cancellations will be posted on MeetUp and Calagator 3 hours before event time.

Vars are at the heart of how Clojure code is evaluated, but their primary features are subtle and their secondary features are many and obscure. Understanding Clojure's vars not only clarifies how the language works, but also opens up new ways of making the language do what you want, especially when building development tools.

BIO

Gary Fredericks is a software engineer who has been making Clojure-themed jokes for nearly ten years. He lives in Chicago and does programming things for DRW. He is writing these words from a playground swing and it is windy and cold. https://twitter.com/gfredericks_

Are you curious about what constitutes harassment or how to handle it?

Join our event to hear perspectives and guidance from HR and Legal professionals, as well as an experienced software executive. We’ll talk about what constitutes harassment from a business and legal perspective, will tell stories from real experience, and give you practical advice on how to handle and avoid intimidating situations.

You will leave this event with tools and tips to help you avoid and handle harassment at work.

Q: Will there be food and drink at this event?
A: Yes, appetizers and drinks, provided by First Tech Federal Credit Union

Q: What is the parking situation?
A: No, all street parking or parking lots.

Q: Is there secured bike parking?
A: No

Q: Should I consider using public transportation?
A: Yes. Max stops at the back of the building at 1st and Oak.

Purpose:

PDXWIT is a community-based non-profit organization. Our purpose is to strengthen the Portland women in tech community by offering educational programs, partnerships, mentorships, resources and opportunities. We are unifying a supportive environment for current and potential women in tech, all of whom are committed to helping each other. Our goal is to bring together and empower women in tech and to encourage others to pursue tech careers. This is our step towards reducing the gender imbalance in the industry and addressing the current negative effects of that imbalance on women.

Our events are inclusive. ALL people who support our purpose are welcome.

Project management—it’s not just about following a template or using a tool, but rather developing personal skills and intuition to find a method that works for everyone. Whether you’re a designer or a manager, Project Management for Humans will help you estimate and plan tasks, scout and address issues before they become problems, and communicate with and hold people accountable.

About the author:

Brett Harned is a digital project management consultant, coach, and community advocate from Philadelphia, PA. His work focuses on solving issues that are important to organizations who want to produce quality digital projects in harmony. He loves to build processes and communication tactics that work not only for projects, but for the people involved in them. Prior to starting his consultancy, he was Vice President of Project Management for Happy Cog. In that role, he mentored a team of PMs and managed projects for companies like Zappos, MTV, and Monotype. Brett began blogging about his adventures in project management at brettharned.com when he realized that there was a void in the industry for people in the digital PM role. He has had the privilege to speak at various events internationally and has written for widely read industry websites and publications. One of the most satisfying projects of Brett's career has been building a global All participants must read and abide by Puppet Labs' Event Code of Conduct below:

Event Code of Conduct

Exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, staff and all other attendees at events organized by Puppet Labs (PuppetConf, Puppet Camps, training classes, and others) or held at Puppet Labs facilities are subject to these Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, and we do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

We ask you to be considerate of others and behave professionally and respectfully to all other participants. Remember that sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers or Puppet Labs staff members.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help participants address concerns. All reports will be treated as confidential. We strongly encourage you to address your issues privately with any of our staff members who are organizing the event. We encourage you to avoid disclosing information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation. Please also keep in mind that public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. We do not condone nor participate in such actions.

We value your attendance. If you cannot find a member of the event staff or are not comfortable contacting one of the staff, you can alternatively contact [masked], Kara Sowles (kara at puppetlabs.com) or Nathan Rawlins [masked] or nathan.rawlins at puppetlabs.com).

We expect all participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

Our IoT Hackathon is coming back the weekend of March 23-25, 2018! For the full event description is available on Eventbrite.

This event is geared towards women but we also welcome everyone who supports our mission of inspiring women to excel in technology careers. The goal of the hackathon is to gain new programming skills, have fun, and work in teams to build sustainability solutions. This year's theme is Sustainable Futures.

We welcome your expertise at this event, whether you are a developer, designer, product manager, project manager, data scientist, business analyst, or marketing professional. You will be working in teams of 4-6 to come up with the next great IoT solution. This hackathon is geared towards all skill levels. If this is your first hackathon, you will fit right in! If you are a seasoned professional ready to lead a dedicated team, this event is also for you!

The event cost is $25 for all hackathon participants and they include food throughout the weekend, WWCode swag, giveaways, and prizes for the winners. We have scholarships available for anyone who is a student, under-employed, or in need of financial assistance. Please visit the full event post on Eventbrite for more information.

Exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, staff and all other attendees at events organized by Puppet Labs (PuppetConf, Puppet Camps, training classes, and others) or held at Puppet Labs facilities are subject to these Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, and we do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

We ask you to be considerate of others and behave professionally and respectfully to all other participants. Remember that sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the organizers or Puppet Labs staff members.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the event staff immediately.

Event staff will be happy to help participants address concerns. All reports will be treated as confidential. We strongly encourage you to address your issues privately with any of our staff members who are organizing the event. We encourage you to avoid disclosing information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation. Please also keep in mind that public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. We do not condone nor participate in such actions.

We value your attendance. If you cannot find a member of the event staff or are not comfortable contacting one of the staff, you can alternatively contact [masked], Kara Sowles (kara at puppetlabs.com) or Nathan Rawlins [masked] or nathan.rawlins at puppetlabs.com).

We expect all participants to follow these rules at all event venues and related social events.

We’re having a work sprint with accessibility in mind. Come share your knowledge!

We are compiling a guide to help ourselves and others bring websites and web and mobile apps to an accessible state. We will have fun and interactive exercises, plus some individual tasks for people to work on.

How will the session work?

Bring a laptop, log in to the gitbook, and add a chapter!

Pick a topic you know and share tips,

Tell a story about your experiences - good and bad - with bringing accessibility to the products you work on, or pick an aspect of implementing accessibility that has puzzled you (like, accessible alert colors), do a little research online and share your results!

What this is:

Shared perspectives, stories and tips from all parts of an organization - UX, development, product and others